Schools Need Leeway in Handling Disruptive Students, Bennett Says

A Supreme Court ruling restricting public school officials’ ability to expel disruptive handicapped students was legally correct but “logically untenable,” Education Secretary William J. Bennett said Thursday.

He suggested that Congress may want to amend the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975 to give principals more leeway in dealing with unusually disruptive students.

But an advocate for the disabled, Susan Stefan, a staff attorney for the Mental Health Law Project, said Bennett was “misreading the decision.”

6-2 High Court Ruling

The high court ruled 6 to 2 on Wednesday that school officials cannot suspend or expel a disruptive handicapped child for more than 10 days without the permission of parents or the courts.

Bennett, speaking to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said he thought the high court’s ruling was legally sound, but said he could envision situations where “this could set a close-to-impossible burden on administrators.”

“We are talking about a small number of cases,” Bennett added. But he said the ruling “could lead to circumstances that are logically untenable.”

Considers Time Adequate

Stefan said the ruling leaves principals with the “right to remove violent, disruptive students. Ten days is plenty of time to talk to the parents” or call another meeting of the team that drew up the child’s education placement.

The 1975 law guarantees disabled children a free public education in the least restrictive environment and gives parents the right to participate in all decisions about the child’s educational program and placement.